Euobserver.com

Eurozone finance ministers will discuss the economic worries with the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, agriculture ministers are set to talk food prices, and EU affairs ministers will put Hungary on the spot in the Article 7 procedure.

Russia state-owned gas giant Gazprom told Finalnd's gas operator that it will cut gas supplies to Finland on Saturday, Finland's Gasum said on Friday. "We have been carefully preparing for this situation," Gasum's CEO Mika Wiljanen said, with the company continuing to supply gas from different sources. Gazprom's move comes as Finalnd last week announced that it wants to join Nato in light of Rusia's invasion of Ukraine.

About half of all Gazprom's gas buyers opened accounts at Gazprombank, after Russian president Vladimir Putin demanded "unfriendly countries" pay for gas in roubles, Russia's deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday according to the Financial Times. 54 companies have an agreement with Gazprom Export, with "about half" having opened rouble accounts. Most buyers of Gazprom's gas are on the list of unfriendly countries, including much of Europe.

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Austria's ex-foreign minister Karin Kneissl should be blacklisted if they don't step down from top Russian state-owned companies, while EU countries should sanctions Europeans who take key jobs at Russian state firms.

French president Emmanuel Macron said in Paris Thursday while meeting Moldovan president Maria Sandu the EU should give a "quick opinion" on her country's eligibility to become an official EU enlargement candidate. But German chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Ukraine in Berlin the same day "there are no shortcuts on the way to the EU", prompting a rebuke by Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba that Kyiv was getting "second class" treatment.

In a debate between energy commissioner Kadri Simson and MEPs, some lawmakers called for a stronger response to Russian energy aggression.

The leader of the Catalan government, Pere Aragonès, denounced the use of the Israeli-made Pegasus spyware against Catalan politicians and MEPs during a visit to Brussels.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag Thursday that he will tour the Western Balkan capitals before the next EU summit to assure them of their European future. "Honouring our commitments to them is not just a question of our credibility. Today more than ever, their integration is also in our strategic interests," Scholz said, Reuters reports. He warned that "external powers", including Russia, were seeking influence in the region.

The UN's human rights office has confirmed 8,089 civilian casualties in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February, with 3,811 killed and 4,278 injured. "Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons ," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement on Thursday. "The actual figures are considerably higher, as many reports are still pending corroboration," it added.

A Joint Investigation Team combines prosecutors, police and judges from different countries who come together under the coordination of Eurojust to synchronise cross-border investigations —with a track record of achieving results: from the Bataclan attacks to the MH17 investigation.

The French EU presidency is pressing to make some last-minute headway on the EU's migration and asylum reform but is still meeting resistance from a handful of member states.

Prices of cereals, fertilisers, and oilseed have shot up drastically in several European markets due to Russia's war on Ukraine, prompting some member states to seek EU aid.

The European Parliament and member states agreed on minimum gas storage obligations on Thursday. The new rules were prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The bloc aims to get rid of Russian energy addiction while maintaining energy security. This year EU countries will need to reach a minimum 80 percent gas storage level by 1 November and from 2023 the target will be 90-percent full gas storage by November.

The European Parliament adopted an EU Commission proposal to reinforce the mandate of the EU agency for criminal justice cooperation, Eurojust, on war crimes evidence. It will now have to be agreed by EU governments, and expected to come into force in June. Eurojust will now be allowed to preserve, analyse and store evidence centrally, and exchange evidence with national authorities, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other countries.

Vladimir Putin's Ukraine war has threatened to be a public relations disaster for hard-right gatherings like the Conservative Political Action Conference — now meeting in Budapest and featuring Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who remains highly-cordial with the Kremlin.

Last year, 139,000 non-EU citizens were refused entry into the bloc, with Ukrainians accounting for the largest number of refusals (50,200), the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, reported on Thursday. In 2021, Hungary, Poland, Croatia and Romania reported the largest number of refusals of entry. Meanwhile, 681,200 non-EU citizens in total were found to be illegally present across EU member states — which represents a 22-percent increase compared to 2020.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag on Thursday that his government is ready to discuss the possibility of treaty change or a convention "if required". "That's no taboo. But it is important that we achieve the greatest possible consensus in the process," he also said. Earlier this month, MEPs called for a convention to implement the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe and trigger deep reforms.

The Nordic Bridges cultural initiative is now in full swing in Canada — an initiatives of the Nordic ministers for culture, to showcase interaction between their cultures and the rest of the world.

EU countries need to refill stockpiles after several member states supplied weapons to Ukraine in its fight with Russia, and to phase out existing Soviet-era weapons systems, and reinforce air defence.

Russian gas imports are set to stop by the weekend amid the country's plans to join Nato and a payment dispute between the two nations, Gasum, the Finnish state-owned gas company, said on Wednesday. Finnish households barely use gas but it is used extensively by industry, which has been told by local authorities to find alternative supplies following the country's application to join Nato on Wednesday, alongside neighbouring Sweden.